Since December 2014, the Taichung City Government has taken the initiative to help 3 right holders of expropriated lands to negotiate with 15 banks and has successfully helped them to get compensated.

Landowners who have mortgaged their expropriated lands for bank lending must pay off the loans or obtain consent letters from the creditor banks before they can receives compensation for expropriation. However, the collateral may decrease in value, making it difficult for the land owners to obtain the consent letters from creditor banks.

The Land Administration Bureau of Taichung City Government has thus set up the “We Help” mechanism to assist landowners to negotiate with the creditor banks. Zhang Zhi-xiang (張治祥), Director-general of Land Administration Bureau said, “In the past, civil servants did not dare to take the initiative to get involved in fear of accusation of profit taking. Nevertheless, we are an action-oriented municipal government and we are not afraid of getting into trouble. We see the difficulties of our citizens as our own difficulties. Thus, when we heard the landowners having troubles in getting compensated for their expropriated lands, we came forward to help 2 right holders talk with domestic creditor banks. We have even taken the initiative to make international calls to Japan to help one right holder living in Japan to negotiate with bankers. It is a great pleasure that everything goes out smoothly at the end of days. The landowners have finally got compensated.”

According to the statistics of Land Administration Bureau, the city government has successfully coordinated 15 lending cases in the past 8 months. Among them, 3 right holders have agreed to deposit and then retrieve their expropriation compensation of NT$ 1.75 million.